National Support Units

National Support Units (NSUs) are tasked with supporting the implementation of CEP activities in the GMS countries through coordination, monitoring, reporting, and knowledge generation and dissemination. Embedded within the environment ministries of the countries, NSUs are overseen by the national focal points of the Working Group on Environment and operate as an extension of the Bangkok-based GMS Environment Operations Center.

Well-resourced and effective NSUs are essential to developing national capacity to deliver CEP and, more broadly, to promote cross-sector coordination and regional cooperation on environment. An important part of CEP Phase II (2012–2016) is to ensure that NSUs have the necessary financial, human, and technical capacities to fulfill their mandate.

The long-term aim is to develop a GMS Environment Operations Network in which NSUs are ‘centers of knowledge and excellence’ with specific thematic expertise and, together with EOC, closely linked to other environmental networks and initiatives involving government, academia and civil society.